Hi!
Introduction:So, I've been in Whittier, CA since Sunday. At Whittier College. We've established this; keep up, people. New Student Orientation was 4 days long... emphasis on the word "long." But fruitful. This past week has been jam-packed with presentations, activities, fairs, events... bunch of things. It's made the process of settling in and making friends a lot easier. I can't go into the specifics of everything because it would take far too long and would not be very exciting to read, so just know that on the whole it has been a good experience.
Move-in Day: My roommate has an awesome family and they pretty much adopted me and moved me into the dorm for me. Super sweet people. I was overjoyed when I first entered my room: shelves... everywhere. I am a meticulous organizer, and I have just been thrown into a room basically made of shelves, drawers and storage space; I swear I saw God for a second. My roomie and I made our respective sides glamorous and individual. I wish I had brought more decorations for my wall and stuff. I guess I'll just have to fill it with new memories, eh?
Dorm Life: A little crazy. And by a little, I mean the absolute opposite of a little. There are two main freshman dorms: Stauffer and Johnson (collectively referred to as StoJo... I know it doesn't exactly make sense but just run with it). Johnson separates genders by floor. I live in Stauffer, which is a different set-up. Each floor is divided in half by gender. My room in particular just happens to be one of the few girls' rooms in the boys' wing. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. See, the majority of the guys on my floor are athletes. Specifically, water polo boys. And they... act... like water polo boys. They're nice to look at, but they're basing dorm life expectations off of "American Pie." Not even a week in and 20 of them were apprehended for illegal possession of alcohol. There' a Nerf gun war going on between the Hawaiian girls and some Lacrosse guys. Absolute madness. On the flip side, the guy in the dorm right next to mine is all kinds of studly. He's the quiet, mysterious type... you know the kind. And a musician. Reowr! God willing he doesn't have some secret Blogger or Facebook account and can read this, or this might get weird. I have yet to introduce myself... or talk to him, at all. I remember him from Admitted Students day months ago, but I doubt he remembers me. I'll think of a way unless I pussy out (which would be more characteristic of me).
Social Life: So far so good. I've made friends with a good chunk of the girls on my floor. I haven't met too many guys; that's a realm I'll excavate (does that metaphor make sense?) further when I feel more grounded. Gotta have my girlss, you know what ahm seiiiiiiiiiin! I know the friends I've made so far are just the tip of the iceberg, which is also an exciting prospect. All my extracurriculars and classes are starting up, and that's where I think I'm going to start forming my network of relationships.
I'm not going to lie, the first day or two was tough for me. Something I never dreamed of happening happened to me: I got homesick. I missed being surrounded by familiar faces and having the option of seeing whoever I wanted. I kept telling myself, why freak out, it's only the second day of college, but the melancholy took over. And then the weirdest thing happened. It was freakish. It was a miracle, possibly even a sign from some higher authority, and I was/am grateful. I was sitting in my dorm alone, and called Technical Services because my internet connection was janky. The guy on the other end of the line told me to bring my laptop to the IT Services building, so I did. My laptop is ALL kinds of messed up. I ended up spending 4 hours down there, but it was cool, because I was talking with the IT guy the whole time. It was weird. He reminded me so much of one of my close friends. I have to repeat, it was weird HOW MUCH he reminded me of this friend. We talked for hours; he even offered me a job. It was a big comfort having a friend to talk to.
My friendship franchise has, fortunately, expanded since, and I have a humble but respectable network of friends.
Food: Good, but fattening. I'm trying really hard to avoid the Freshman 15 but there is SO MUCH FOOD in the CI (Campus Inn) and it's all really fatty and really delicious. I like to steal fruit in my purse and stock up in my dorm in case I ever want a snack. I've also been keeping up with Callanetics. And the daily walking back and forth from building to building is doing wonders for my legs. Oye... we had a special event at the President's House last night, and we had to walk all the way up this massive hill to get to it. I know this doesn't really have to do with "food," but President Hertzberger has an AMAZING house. It's huge, has a tower, sun room, massive yard, beautifully furnished, expensive historical paintings and tapestries everywhere. Plus, since it's at the top of a hill the view is stupidly pretty. On a clear day you can see Disneyland fireworks, apparently.
Classes: The first day of classes was today. I woke up at my own leisure, went to class, and was out by 12:20. I could get used to this. My schedule, however, is hella hectic. I didn't get into all the courses I wanted, but I was deadset on one thing: I want to take "Shakespeare" with Professor Morris. This class is usually reserved for upper classmen, and really hard to get into, because it's extremely popular. Prof. Morris is said to be one of the greatest teachers at Whittier. Well. I did not get into this course, naturally. But gosh darn it, I bothered him. I bothered him a lot. I fervently explained my passion for Shakespeare and, sprinkled in how many English credits I already have and my experience in Actor's Academy (holla!). He finally decided to let me in. Accomplishment much?? I was stoked. And we discussed me possibly working as his office assistant for work study. Whoop whoop!
I had my first day of "Calculus and Analytical Geometry" today... I would like to coin the acronym DTS:
Drop
That
Shit
One day was enough. WAY too hard. What the hell is a Creative Writing major doing in upper division calculus anyway? I don't care what my Math Placement Exam said; math ain't my thing and impractical math like Calculus CERTAINLY ain't either.
I'm in the middle of a drop-add-drop-add-drop-add hurricane right now because I have to drop certain classes to take other ones, and so on. So, my original schedule was
Modern American Poetry
Calculus & Analytical Geometry
Calculus & Analytical Geometry lab
French Cinema
College Writing Seminar ("Our Monsters, Ourselves")
Swimming
If all goes according to plan-- and I'm hoping it will-- my revised schedule will be
French Cinema
College Writing Seminar ("Our Monsters, Ourselves")
Shakespeare
Introduction to Acting
Psychology of Love & Human Sexuality
THAT is a garden I most certainly can dig.
Extracurriculars: Auditions for the upcoming play, "Iphigenia And Other Daughters," are tomorrow. There's going to be a sort of welcome-to-whittier-theatre party beforehand, and then auditions for first years. We don't have to have a monologue prepared... if it were any play but this one I would be peeved; I like the opportunity of showcasing my little bag of tricks. But 'Iphigenia' is an obscure, modern-Greek play. Funny story: I don't know any obscure, modern-Greek monologues. Works out? I think so.
And today I started working for the Quaker Campus, which is Whittier's newspaper. I can get paid to write, because it counts as work-study. This is it, folks. I'm doing it. I'm living it. Getting paid for my writing. Neat concept, eh? Deadline is next Tuesday... high school newspaper deadlines can suck it. The Quaker Campus is a weekly paper. Time constraints! Whoo!
As far as planned events go, they are everywhere everyday. Whittier has a strange fixation with ice cream socials... I don't know what that's about, but we've had like 5. I'm not complaining. Earlier this week they projected a huge LCD of "Star Trek" onto the side of one of the buildings, and we all sat under the stars and watched it. That was one of the funnest events, in my opinion. We also had a black preacher talk to us about diversity... that doesn't sound fun, but it definitely was. I love animated Baptist preachers. He was funny. And today there was a hypnotist show... HILARIOUS. One of my friends was on stage; the hypnotist erased the number 4 from her memory. When he asked her to count all ten of her fingers she was stumped how that 11th one got there. He hypnotized a group of around 30 students into drinking bottled water and thinking it was potent alcohol. One kid (who was hilarious the whole night... he fell under easy) actually passed out on the floor! All sorts of crazy stuff; it was awesome.
Tomorrow is the "Welcome Back" dance, but there's also a board game night in the faculty house... hmm... And on Saturday, a group of us are taking the Metrolink to downtown L.A. for the day! I'm excited for that.
Conclusion: Whittier is a great school. I have a good feeling about it. I cannot stress how kind and helpful everyone on campus is. It's like the faculty and staff eat sunshine every morning for breakfast. As far as academics go, Whittier embodies all the things I want from a college education: a broad spectrum of knowledge (the liberal arts curriculum), the pursuit of courses related to my field, and the encouragement to take classes that aren't necessarily connected to my field but are new things I've always wanted to try. I am a scatterbrained individual. I want to learn EVERYTHING (except Calculus). It's good here. I'm curious to see how the year will play out.
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